University Grants Commission, New Delhi Recognized Journal No. 41311 ISSN: Print: 2347-5021 www.research-chronicler.com ISSN: Online: 2347-503X The Literary Representation of Glamour and Sex in Harold Robbins’s The Carpetbaggers and other Novels Dr. Pankaj Kumar ‘Niraj’ Assistant Professor, Dept. of English, Dr. J. Mishra College, Muzaffarpur, (Bihar) India Abstract Glamour is a popular subject. The books on glamour emphasise the romance and the illusion. Many of the title announce the books themselves give more of a mixed message than their titles do. Like glamour and romance sex is a staple of contemporary fiction. It won’t surprise that the subject is indeed very popular. The Carpetbaggers is bestselling novel by Harold Robbins, which was adapted into a 1964 film of the same title. Robbins is known for his vigorous style which varies from place to place and character to character. Key Words: Fiction, Sex, Glamour, Beauty, Best-seller Many people choose their reading by topic author’s background show.The books on or genre. So, it is useful to provide these glamour deal with the personalities and categories if only to give more information places of the entertainment industry. We as to what the book is about. The books thus include all novels about film and theatre people, models and media are classified by the standard fictional genres: mystery, horror, saga, science celebrities and cult figure. The word fiction, spy, historical novel, western short glamour suggests a romantic, often stories and books for young readers. They illusionary, attraction; it was originally are also classified by topic if the main used to mean a kind of magic spell. It action involves one of the subjects found means the attractive and exciting quality so frequently among the best sellers: that makes a person, a job or a place seem namely glamour and sex and international special, often because of wealth or status intrigue without the spies. Where and even physical beauty that also 1 additional information is needed, their suggests wealth or succees . broader categories and used suspense, Glamour is a popular subject. The books adventure and drama- paralleling the kind on glamour emphasise the romance and of classification often found in movie the illusion. Many of the title announce the listening. books themselves give more of a mixed Well as in those glamorous figures are message than their titles do. They show the familiar characters in American best-seller problems beneath the surface of fiction. Books about glamour, like so celebrities’ lives even while they use the many of the best sellers, offer authentic glamour for all it is worth in the story. The “inside” accounts. Readers are shown the books have become less critical and more secrets beneath the surface: the drags, frequent and the number of novels about alcoholism and extramarital affairs. glamour has increased. In this regard However, like other books, too, these vary Harold Robbins’ novels about glamour are The Adventurers2, The Inheritors3, The widely in their inside information, as the Volume VII Issue VI: June 2019 (256) Author: Dr. Pankaj Kumar ‘Niraj’ University Grants Commission, New Delhi Recognized Journal No. 41311 ISSN: Print: 2347-5021 www.research-chronicler.com ISSN: Online: 2347-503X Lonely Lady4, Goodbye, Janette5. These love. novels of Harold Robbins emphasise both The Carpetbaggers is bestselling novel by the glamour and romance. These novels Harold Robbins, which was adapted into a have become less critical and more 1964 film of the same title. The term" frequent. carpetbagger" has the generic meaning of a Like glamour and romance sex is a staple presumptuous newcomer who enters a new of contemporary fiction. It won’t surprise territory seeking success. It derived from that the subject is indeed very popular. In ambitious Northerners who flocked to the fact, novels about sex are no more difficult post-Civil-War South (carrying their to classify than those of any other topic. It clothes and possessions in a handbag made was D.H. Lawrence who discussed sex of carpet material), seeking opportunities openly in his novels as ‘Sons and Lovers’6 to help newly-enfranchised black citizens and Lady Chatterley’s lover7. Federico run for political office in return for various Fellini in the course of an interview flavours. In this novel, the territory is the granted at the premier of his film Fellini’s movie industry, and the newcomer is a Satyricon, said “….Sex is not such a big wealthy heir to an industrial fortune who, problem as Christianity has made it. Sex is like Howard Hughes, simultaneously only the lure of sexes; sex is just sex.”8 pursued aviation and Movie-making Harold Robbins was such a writer whose avocations. opinion about glamour and sex made him Ian Parker described the book as: the best-selling authors of his age. The "a roman a clef-it was generally thought to 9 Adventurers, The Inheritors, The Betsy , have been· The Pirate10, The Lonely Lady, Dream Die 13 First11, Goodbye, Janette, were the novels, Inspired by the life of Howard Hughes.” in which Robbins always offered a In an interview with Dick Lochte, Robbins mystery of sorts and always seemed to be said “The airplane manufacturer in the interminable, much to the delight of Carpetbaggers was Bill Lrear, not Howard readers. His novels deal with social and Hughes, by the way." TV Guide Online's psychological themes, hunger of money, capsule summary of the movie says, poverty, conflict between illusion and however, "Deny it though he might, reality, gap between profession and Harold Robbins obviously used parts of practice, human frailties and the life of Howard Hughes as the basis for inconsistencies, drawing his most haunting his major character, Jonas Cord." One characters mainly from the upper class. must agree with Parker and TV Guide, The fictional genre allows him greater since Lear, developer of the Lear jet and elbowroom to portray different or the. 8-track tape player, was more famous as conflicting characters situations, points of an engineer than as an aviator, and had no view, Structures and patterns of connection with Hollywood. experience. His The Carpetbaggers12 In the Carpetbaggers the young Nevada widely acclaimed as a powerful but Smith returns to find his parents tortured concretization of the cross currents and with branding irons, the mother raped and counter points between the death wish and skinned alive. In later life he discovers one the resurrective power of human faith and Volume VII Issue VI: June 2019 (257) Author: Dr. Pankaj Kumar ‘Niraj’ University Grants Commission, New Delhi Recognized Journal No. 41311 ISSN: Print: 2347-5021 www.research-chronicler.com ISSN: Online: 2347-503X of the torturers still using her tanned breast Nevada Smith is a cowboy who breaks as a tobacco pouch. Smith’s revenges are into the movies by volunteering to perform typically violent and genital. The first of a risky stunt, becomes fabulously wealthy the murderers he catches up with he leaves as a movie cowboy star, and becomes to have his pubis (an oddly favorite proprietor of a Wild West show. In these Robbins term) eaten by ants, after slitting details he bears a vague resemblance to his eyelids and staking him in the sun. The Tom Mix, who was a star performer in the second he judicially shoots twice in the 101 Wild West Show and became in turn a belly and once in the balls so he can watch movie extra, stunt man, and major star. him die at the proper leisurely rate. The Some also see a resemblance between other Hughes inspired, hero Jonas starts Nevada Smith and William Boyd, Who his adult life with the motto mi padre ha became famous as Hop along Cassidy. metro my father is dead. The most Odaensay that Smith was based on extravagant of Robbins fantasies The cowboy actor Ken Maynard. A 1966 Pirate, the hero is ripped from the belly of movie entitled Nevada Smith starring his dying mother. Memories of Another Steve McQueen was based on his role in Day starts with the young hero’s father’s this book. The role of Billy the kid in Hughes death: The Outlaw was played by Jack Betel, who, ‘The last time I saw my father, he prior to his movie career was neither an outlaw was lying quietly on nor a cowboy, but an insurance clerk. His back in his coffin’, his eyes The Carpetbaggers resembles the novels of the closed, an unaccustomed Marquis de Sade, which interleave philosophical disquisitions, sex scenes, blandness on his strong features, his shocking violence and fiendish torture, all thick white hair repeated ad limited and-to some-ad and heavy eyebrows neatly brushed, nauseam.The most successful of Robbins's I stood there in the many successful books, it was eventually to sell, as of 2004, over eight million copies. silence of the funeral chapel staring The profile of Robbins" in Gale's down at him. There Contemporary Authors Online makes the was something wrong. All wrong. startling claim that The Carpetbaggers is After a moment I estimated to be the fourth most-read book realized what it was. My father had in history." Published at the onset of the never slept on his sexual revolution, The Carpetbaggers demonstrates Robbins's skill at judging the back. Not once in all the years I exact boundaries of permissibility. Only 14 knew him.” two years earlier, the U.S. Postmaster Further confusing the situation the names General had banned D. H. Lawrence's Lady of real people whom Robbins' fictional Chatterley's Lover from the mails as obscene. characters resemble are often mentioned In 1960, publisher Grove Press won the briefly within the novel, as if they Supreme Court case contesting the ban, inhabited the fictional world alongside but even in 1962 booksellers all over the their fictional doubles.